It is July and Poetry Potion celebrates its 15th birthday this month! Special congratulations to our founder Za for her vision and willingness to create and maintain Poetry Potion as a platform and home for poets from all walks of life. It has been a beautiful journey imbibed with words and ideas and the aspirations of poets from around the world. And from what I can tell, the poets love and appreciate it dearly.
From the dusty streets of… Haha! No. Can you imagine!
Poetry Potion went online in the wintery July of 2007, with the poem Starvation is my name by legendary South African poet and photographer Kabelo Mofokeng. We have since gone on to publish thousands of poems online by both celebrated and relatively unknown poets. We have consistently published a new poem and writing prompt every day throughout the years and published fourteen Poetry Potion Print Edition journals. Poetry Potion has also profiled many poets and shared poetry-related essays, reviews, interviews and videos. We extended our curatorial work by launching the Poetry Potion Podcast. Here we continue to introduce poets and new audiences to each other. The idea is community. And interaction. Not to be some holy indispensable feature on the South African Poetry landscape. That’s cool- and would be a nice acknowledgement- but not the driving force behind the last 15 years.
With that said, I wish to extend a special thank you to our community: every contributor, our readers, and every poet that has entrusted us with their work. We appreciate you and your support. Poetry Potion is devoted to showcasing a wide range of poets from across the world. We hope that these voices demonstrate the exuberance, joy, pain and frivolity of this life we live. Through poetry, we can interrogate the human condition. And who knows, maybe even make the world a little better…
Over the next few weeks, we will cast an eye back and reflect on select highlights from the last 15 years. We will revisit some content from our past Print Editions, republish past interviews and essays and continue to share our daily prompt and Poem Of The Day. We will also dive into our poetry archive for a reread of the gems that grabbed at our hearts. Then we’ll throw it forward, and share with you the profiles and poetry of 15 exciting young poets who have put their hands up for the work of the next coming 15 years. Poetry is venturing into exciting interdisciplinary spaces using technology and spirituality as a vehicle. We are excited by the work of these younger poets and honoured to introduce them to our community.
Keep an eye on our social media, for giveaways and more birthday news! And again, Thank you for your continued support.
For the love of Poetry.
Quaz.
Comments are closed.
Happy Birthday into Poetry!
And to many, many more – poems and years of publication.
Thank you Patricia!